Budget

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Obamacare - President - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Excuses Over 500,000 Union Members From Obamacare

January 12, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember back in the days of the debate over Obamacare when unions were the biggest voices screaming in support of the legislation? Many labor union bosses said that nationalized healthcare was exactly what they wanted. Further they said it was what was good for the country. Yet now we learn that Obama has given waivers to some 550,000 union members so that they don;t have to suffer under Obamacare.

Paul Connor reports that a classic Friday evening document dump from the White House shows that unions employing up to 543,812 members have received waivers fro the Obama administration.

Fridays are often the one day of the week when government agencies satisfy transparency rules and release documents that show what they’ve been up to. They release them on Friday in the early evening because they understand that reporters are already headed home for the weekend and TV news departments have already programed their evening newscasts. These agencies also understand that news agencies don’t often cover heavy news on weekends. Further, by the time Monday rolls around the document will be “old news” and many of them will simply escape attention.
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Obama Excuses Over 500,000 Union Members From Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Constitution - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - DOJ - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Frank Salvato - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes

Promises, Promises: The Reality of Campaign Speak

January 11, 2012 by

-By Frank Salvato

As the campaign cycle progresses we are going to hear a lot about what one candidate or another is going to do about this or that. We will, to the point of weariness, be inundated with campaign promise after campaign promise, albeit, between gratuitous attacks, both political and personal. This is politicking and the American electorate – for better or for worse – has come to accept a certain amount of it from the people in the political class. But expecting grandiose pledges and believing in the unattainable, well, those are two different things. It is the truly foolish who believe half of what a political candidate says he can deliver, and the blame for that foolishness must fall on the shoulders of the individual voter.

While Presidents sign legislation into law, it is Congress – the House and the Senate; the Legislative Branch – that actually crafts and passes legislation. Therefore, any promise made on the campaign trail by a presidential candidate, be it by the incumbent or the challenger (or the field of candidates vying to be the challenger), is subject to the debate and acquiescence of those in the Legislative Branch; in Congress. It is because of this that any promise made by a presidential candidate must be received by the voting public as more of an intention, rather than a promise. To accept a campaign promise as an impending reality is to set oneself up for almost certain disappointment. And to blame a successful candidate for not living up to those campaign promises requires a level of certainty that the promise was actually ignored, not thwarted.

A good example of campaign promises thwarted comes in the form of the Republican TEA Party supported congressional freshman class who, during the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, promised to “repeal or defund Obamacare” and to “bring fiscal responsibility to Washington.” Each of those elected sincerely believed that they would be able to succeed in doing what they promised. In fact, HR2 of the 112th Congress did, in fact, attempt to repeal Obamacare and many of the TEA Party supported members of the House took it straight on the chin during the debt, deficit and budget debates. But for all of their good intentions and actions, the freshmen Republicans of the 112th Congress learned that unless you have a veto-proof majority in the House, a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a friendly inhabitant in the White House, absolutes in campaign promises do not exist.

The same must be said about the Executive Branch and the President of the United States, although he has some additional quivers in his pouch where getting his way is concerned: the bully pulpit (self-explanatory) and the Executive Order.

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Promises, Promises: The Reality of Campaign Speak”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

RATE Coalition: We Are on Track to Have the Highest Corporate Tax Rate in the World

January 10, 2012 by

A group called Reform America’s Taxes Equitably (RATE) has a new video:

Reducing the corporate tax rate would be a boost for American competitiveness, investment and job creation,” the video concludes. “To get America back on track and bring jobs back where they belong, Congress must act and Reform America’s Taxes Equitably … This is our economy fair and simple.

RATE’s goals are to reform the tax code, making it fairer and simpler and improving the prospects of growth and jobs in the U.S. economy by reducing the corporate income tax rate to make it more competitive with our nation’s major trading partners.

http://www.ratecoalition.com/
http://www.facebook.com/RATECoalition

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Money - Obamacare - President - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Electronic Medical Records Requirements Already Causing Job Loss

January 9, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

While the Old Media has been ecstatic over recent job numbers, claiming that some 200,000 jobs have been added to the economy, we should note that while Obama giveth Obama also taketh away. The media may be trying to claim the President has “created or saved” jobs (the latest weasel word is he’s created job opportunity) but his policies have also cost jobs. In particular his policies are costing jobs in the medical field.

Last week, layoffs were announced in Mississippi at the University of Mississippi Medical Center due in part to the 80 million dollars that it will cost to implement a new computer system named EPIC Systems, Obama’s newly mandated electronic medical records system.

Naturally, the system Obama is forcing on an entire nation of medical professionals and hospitals is the same system owned and operated by Judith Faulkner, one of his own big donors. Faulkner is also a big donor to the Democrat Party. Not surprisingly, besides affording her the lucrative, crony capitalist business deal, Obama also put Faulkner in a key role on the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, the committee responsible for implementing the President’s e-records policy. She has become known as Obama’s medical records czar.

As hospitals and doctors are forced to launch their own EPIC Systems portals, the costs are forcing hard choices for administrators. All to implement what many call a flawed system.
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Obama’s Electronic Medical Records Requirements Already Causing Job Loss”

Alan Caruba - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EPA - Ethics - Liberals - Taxes

EPA’s Killer MACT

January 9, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

To understand how the Environmental Protection Agency operates, one must first understand that it lies all the time. Its “estimates” are bogus. Its claims of lives saved are bogus.

It thrives on scare-mongering to a public that is science-challenged, but the science remains and the EPA must be challenged to save the nation from the loss of the energy it needs to function. It must be challenged to unleash the huge economic benefits of energy resources—coal, oil, and natural gas—that can reverse our present economic decline.

The latest outrage is the MACT rule—an acronym for “maximum achievable control technology” intended to reduce mercury emissions and other trace gases. The rule is 1,117 pages long. Its purpose is to shut down coal-fired power plants that generate over fifty percent of all the electricity used daily in the United States of America.

The value of the total benefits asserted by the EPA is alleged to be $6 million. Not billion, but million. The MACT rule would force 14.7 gigawatts—enough power for more than eleven million households—to be “retired” from the power grip in the 2014-15 period when the rules take effect.

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EPA’s Killer MACT”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New York - Newspapers - PCism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Albany Police Chief Slams ‘Occupy’-Supporting Councilmen

January 8, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff came in for heavy criticism by fans of the Occupy “movement” after he ordered the clearing of their downtown encampment pursuant to a court order. The arguments over the actions by police have raged since the December 23 conflagration with Chief Krokoff getting savaged repeatedly by the media and some city councilmen alike. But this week Krokoff confronted his critics and he wasn’t gentle about it!

The big criticism arose when officers used pepper spray when the Occupiers became violent. Since then several Councilmen, such as Anton Konev, have criticized the police saying that their actions were unnecessary. Konev, for instance, has announced that he has no confidence in the Chief and is angling to have him fired. Naturally, Konev has been an open agitator for and supporter of Occupy Albany.

But on January 6, Chief Krokoff came before the city council with a strong defense of his and his officers’ actions delivering a withering blast to some of the councilmen that have come to the defense of the lawless Occupiers.
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Albany Police Chief Slams ‘Occupy’-Supporting Councilmen”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

State Sponsored Thievery Continues in Plain Sight

January 7, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Teachers and other public employees use “air time” to pick your pocket. The California State Teachers Retirement System tries calming words. David Crane tells the truth and loses yet another job.

Saying that the state teachers’ retirement system is underfunded is the understatement of this or any year and now, CalSTRS is giving us specifics. On December 27th, it said,

“Recent media reports have suggested that to solve the unfunded liability the state will have to increase CalSTRS funding by $3.8 billion a year for 30 years for a total of more than $114 billion. Although this is an accurate statement based on current projections, achieving adequate funding can occur several ways that would be phased in over time. The CalSTRS $56 billion funding shortfall can be managed, but it will require gradual and predictable increases in contributions.”

In fact, saying that the shortfall has to be “managed” is like saying that World War II had to be managed. No, the reality is that there has to be major destruction and rebuilding, no matter how unpopular this will be with the beneficiaries of the theft, their unions and their kick-the-can-down-the-road buddies in Sacramento who are occasionally known as legislators. Tinkering around the edges and “managing” the problem will do little.
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State Sponsored Thievery Continues in Plain Sight”

ABC - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Ethics - Government - Hollywood - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Taxes - TV - Warner Todd Huston

Reality TV Tax Hikes? ABC Pushes a Kim Kardashian Tax

January 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here’s a new way to try and hip-up the boring, ages-old, left-wing idea of tax hikes: link it to reality TV star Kim Kardashian. That is just what ABC News tried to do on the Wednesday, January 4 edition of ABC World News Tonight when the venerable news program helped advertise an effort by a small group headed by a former Democrat operative that wants to hike California’s income taxes. It is a two-pronged approach of hitching a big government, big spending, high tax agenda to the TV reality show star in order to drag younger people into the left’s class warfare game.

ABC highlighted a California Millionaires Tax policy recommendation from a group called Courage Campaign. The group is headed by Rick Jacobs who is the former head of Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign in California, a Huffington Post writer, and leader of this admittedly “progressive” group.

ABC reported that the “liberal group” (and kudos to ABC for actually identifying them as a liberal group for a change) is upset that Kim Kardashian, who made some $12 million in 2011, only paid one percent more than the average middle class wage in the Golden State.

Here is what the extremist high-tax group says on it’s website about this:
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Reality TV Tax Hikes? ABC Pushes a Kim Kardashian Tax”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Money - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Wash. Post Plays Hate-The-Rich-Republicans With Graphic Chart

December 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Wednesday morning the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake posted an infographic that was a perfect example of how one can use a graphic chart to influence the public in subtle ways, ways that we of the center right better start employing in our own efforts if we want to win over the public.

Blake’s post, “Why People Hate Congress,” fits in well with President Obama’s class warfare rhetoric as employed in his campaign to set different economic classes against each other in a desperate and cynically populist bid to get reelected next year. There is little of substance to Blake’s post other than to fan the flames of the sort of hatred that he wants to see grow in order to aid Obama in 2012.

The Post’s Blake also ended up having to pull the graphic off his The Fix blog post because it simply did not illustrate what he claimed it did in his story — but that is another issue that we’ll deal with at the end of this report.

Blake begins his piece asking, “Want to know why Americans hate Congress?” He then goes on to claim it is in part because our elected representatives in Washington D.C. are members of the eeeevil rich.

The fact that members of Congress are getting richer (and 57 members come from the top 1 percent, according to USA Today) confirms what Americans suspect about the people who are running this country: that they don’t empathize with normal people.

Of course, with a dispassionate application of logic, having a few dollars more than the next guy does not ipso facto make the richer guy so out of touch that he cannot empathize with anyone in a lower salary range. Only those filled with hate make this assumption. Empathy has nothing to do with class, money, or politics. It has to do with one’s character.

Further there are plenty of members of Congress with the character to understand and have empathy with others. Then there are some that don’t. People are people, rich or poor.

It is also telling that even Blake admits that Congress has always been filled with “the rich.” The founders were not groveling in poverty, after all. It often takes a person that has achieved a certain place in society to become elected. I mean, should they be elected, how can anyone expect “the poor” or even the lower middle class to afford to fund homes both in D.C. and back in their district? Who can afford to leave their family and business if half the year off more to fly off the D.C. to attend to government business? And with the costs of elections and the Byzantine election laws these days causing many candidates to self fund, it will only be natural that “the rich” end up being our representatives in Congress.

But special attention has to be paid to the graphic Blake used to illustrate his story. And what a masterwork of subtlety it is. Blake claimed that the illustration made by a well-known hate-the-rich researcher from California showed in graphic form the distribution of wealth among both chambers of Congress. The graphic depicts the “top 1%” and the “next 9%” in the color red. Then it uses blue to show the “following 10%” and the “bottom 80%.” Notice what is going on? That’s right, this graphic uses the color red to depict the eeevil rich. And what is the color red in politics these days? None other than the color the Old Media has assigned to the Republican Party.
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Wash. Post Plays Hate-The-Rich-Republicans With Graphic Chart”

Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Visitors from Outer Space and Their Strange Ideas About Education Reform

December 30, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

There are those among us who think that teachers unions, collective bargaining and peer assistance review are the way to a better education for kids. They look like earthlings, but in fact are extraterrestrials.

As the year draws to a close, newspapers, magazines and blogs are filled with best of and worst of lists that deal with everything imaginable. The Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force got on the bandwagon early and posted Best and Worst in American Education, 2011 in November. All solid stuff. Can a reformer not be happy about the Parent Trigger being raked over the coals, yet surviving, or that many of Michelle Rhee’s reforms are still in place despite leaving her post as D.C. Schools Chancellor after a major push from the American Federation of Teachers? On the worst list, the Task Force includes the Atlanta teacher cheating scandal and the union-orchestrated overturn of Ohio’s recent anti-collective bargaining law.

Then lo and behold, we received a dispatch from Planet Ravitch on December 23rd. (Most people are not aware that shortly after astronomers ruled that Pluto was not a planet in 2006, a new planet would be identified. And it is inhabited!) The people who live on this celestial body (named after Diane Ravitch, a former reformer who turned into a champion of the failing status quo) are afflicted with a dyslexic-like condition: they have the entire education reform picture exactly backwards. The way to true reform is to hold their ideas up to a mirror with the resulting image revealing the best way to proceed.
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Visitors from Outer Space and Their Strange Ideas About Education Reform”

10th Amendment - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - GOP - Government - Health - Liberals - Massachusetts - Mitt Romney - Obamacare - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Mitt Romney: My Mass. Healthcare Plan Is ‘Fundamentally Conservative’

December 29, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston


Romney did it again. On Fox News he linked Romneycare to conservative principles, an outrageous act in the eyes of any conservative. But hold the boat, people, because Romney didn’t exactly say that Romneycare itself is a conservative policy. And therein lies the weasel words that Romney has used to describe the Massachusetts healthcare plan he was so proud to pass when he was the Governor of the state.

To the video…

Transcript:

I’m happy to stand by the things I believe. I’m not going to change my positions by virtue of being in a presidential campaign. What we did was right for the people of Massachusetts. The plan is still favored there by 3:1 and it is fundamentally a conservative principle because the people take personal responsibility rather than turning to the government for free care.

Now, let’s look at what Romney said here. He didn’t exactly say that Romneycare itself is “fundamentally conservative.” He said the concept that people should take responsibility for their own healthcare is a fundamentally conservative idea.

Such as it is, he’s right. That IS a fundamentally conservative idea.

But as Romney has repeatedly done since he signed that disastrous, socialist, far from conservative piece of legislation, he has weasel worded his description of that law. As he’s done before, in this clip he illicitly linked conservative principles to Romneycare by focusing at a micro level on the single idea that we should take care of our own healthcare and linking that real conservative principle to his actions as if conservative principles are the guiding forces behind Romneycare. The problem with Romney’s characterization of the issue is that his legislation is fundamentally not conservative. It is big government, socialist, authoritarian nonsense. It’s not conservative at all. Romney tries to us that one tiny conservative idea buried under miles of socialist ideas as misdirection for the ills that Romneycare forces on the people of the Bay State.
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Mitt Romney: My Mass. Healthcare Plan Is ‘Fundamentally Conservative’”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Republicans - Taxes

The 2012 Check List for America’s Survival

December 29, 2011 by

-By Alan Caruba

Many people make resolutions to start the year, but I think a list of things that must be done to protect and preserve the Republic should be tallied.

1. President Obama must be defeated in 2012 and the obstructionist Democratic Party must lose power in the Senate to ensure both houses of Congress will be Republican and in a position to initiate real change.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency must be reined in with increased Congressional oversight and legislative limits on its rule-making capacity. Having fulfilled its 1970 mandate to clean the nation’s air and water, it should be scaled back to the maintenance of these functions.

3. Americans, despite the administration’s efforts to redefine and distract us, must keep clearly in mind the threat of Islam to the nation and the world. A Middle East in turmoil lays ahead for 2012.

4. To jump-start the economy, taxes and spending must be reduced across the board. A tax on consumption, rather than income would be a good start. Only 49% of Americans currently pay income taxes, the lowest in decades.
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The 2012 Check List for America’s Survival”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Dick Durbin - Ethics - Government - Illinois - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Senator Dick Durbin: Pants on Fire

December 23, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Senior Senator, Democrat Dickie Durbin wants you to know that the fact that the Democrats have not passed a full, working budget in over 900 days is all because of those wascally Republicans.

Never mind that the Democrats have had the majority for over three years in the Senate, never mind that before the 2010 midterm elections they had 100% control of both Congress and the White House… it’s all them gosh darn Republican’s fault.

Never mind that they passed the boondoggle healthcare bill that will cause the U.S. to go bankrupt, never mind that Obama has gotten all his little sops to Big Labor to spite the faltering economy, never mind…. well, never mid all the things the Democrats seemed to have no problem getting done, they just can’t get that danged ld budget passed.

The fact is, Democrats are playing politics with one of the only real Constitutional duties they have, creating and passing a federal budget. Yet, the Old Media allows Obama to stand before the American people and pretend that he and his party are the ones interested in fiscal sanity? This is why our politics is so messed up. The Democrats operate on bald faced lies and the Old Media allows them get away with it.
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Senator Dick Durbin: Pants on Fire”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Nanny State - Public Employees Unions - RightPundits.com - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Unions Acting Like Unions Harassing Teacher Supporting Gov. Walker

December 15, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Kristi Lacroix, a Wisconsin teacher, appeared in a political ad produced by education reform supporters of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Now, her union is retaliating against her so harshly that she is considering quitting her job in public education because of the harassment.

As Kyle Walker says in the video, this is typical Alinsky tactics with a “fire Kristi” movement drummed up by union thugs to force the poor woman to quit her job. People that used to be her friends, used to be her coworkers are attempting to destroy her life just because of her political position….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - RightPundits.com - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Stimulus Bigger Failure Than First Thought

December 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrats have for at least a year claimed that Obama’s various stimulus plans were a great success — that they even “saved the country” — and put people back to work. But a new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is proving that claim to be chimerical.

Past news reports of Obama’s stimulus spending has claimed that 3.5 million jobs were “saved” or created by the stimulus programs. But new CBO numbers puts that at a far, far lower 600,000 jobs making the expense incurred to “save” or create those jobs ring in at $1.3 million per job. Not a very good deal, that….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Financial Reform - Franklin Deleno Roosevelt - History - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - WWII

Debunking Myths About The Great Depression

December 14, 2011 by

The New Deal Was A Failure: Hoover and FDR Prolonged the Great Depression with Big Government

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation explains how the statist policies of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt lengthened and deepened the Great Depression. The video also briefly explains how reductions in the burden of government spending helped the economy recover from a deep recession after World War I and to grow after World War II.

Alan Caruba - Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Europe - Foreign Countries - France - Germany - Liberals - Taxes

Looking to the Dollar, Gold, and “Mutti” to Save the World

December 14, 2011 by

-By Alan Caruba

The most formidable couple in the world during the 1980s was Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, a conservative and a woman of iron will, must be looking across the Channel with some amusement to see how her German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel, is literally the only person keeping the European economy from collapsing and, it must be said, taking England and America with it.

The cover article of this week’s Business Week noted that “Merkel is the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. She won a PhD for a thesis on quantum chemistry…though childless, she is known as Mutti, for Mother.” Born in the post-war years, “Merkel’s worldview reflects the German desire for stability. Chaos plagued the German-speaking people long before there was a German nation…Later the hyperinflation of the 1920s and Depression of the 1930s, both of which undermined the middle-class, gave rise to Nazism.”

Plainly said, Angela Merkel is showing the rest of the world why Keynesian economics doesn’t work; that governments with huge “entitlement” programs and a tendency to throw vast amounts of money at their problems invite disaster. If Europe does not plunge into chaos, it will be because she refused to bail it out with the deutschmark.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is moving billions to Europe to ease its lending crisis.
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Looking to the Dollar, Gold, and “Mutti” to Save the World”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed: A Case Study of Silver Spring, Maryland

December 13, 2011 by

High, persistent unemployment and a sluggish economy underscore what all but the most-dedicated supporters of Barack Obama know to be true: The president’s 2009 stimulus program was a massively expensive bust.

Understanding why the stimulus failed is an important step in understanding how the government can—and cannot—goose economic recovery. To get a better sense of how and where the stimulus went wrong, Reason.tv focused on Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., that’s home to a large number of government contractors and other recipients of money earmarked for the sorts of “shovel ready” projects that were going to bring the economy back to life.

President Obama’s top economic advisor Larry Summers laid out ground rules for how stimulus dollars should be spent: The funds must be “targeted” at resources idled by the recession, the interventions must be “temporary,” and they needed to “timely,” or injected quickly into the economy.
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Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed: A Case Study of Silver Spring, Maryland”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

The Route to Teacher Union Extinction: Is the Other Shoe Dropping?

December 13, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

In addition to online learning, Democrat’s abandonment of their traditional union allies could put an end to the educational status quo and decimate the teachers unions

In my October 18th post, I wrote about Terry Moe’s book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools. I specifically addressed that part of the book in which he builds a scenario for the eventual undoing of the teachers unions. One of the two ways he claims this will happen is via technology, in the form of online learning. The other route to marginalization is the realization by Democrats that education is really a civil rights issue and that they are morally bound to get on board with reform and choice. By adopting this position, they will be abandoning their longtime political allies – the teachers unions.

As with the rapid ascent of online learning, Moe’s second nail in the unions’ coffin is picking up speed. In a recent Huffington Post entry, Joy Resmovits addresses the “new education lobby.”
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The Route to Teacher Union Extinction: Is the Other Shoe Dropping?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Biofuels - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Climate Change - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Environment - Ethics - Government - Green Energy - Liberals - Military - Navy - President - RightPundits.com - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Crony Capitalism: Navy Buys ‘Green’ Fuel at 4 X Price

December 12, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama administration has announced its successful purchase of “green” biofules for the U.S. Navy at $15 per gallon. This success story is interesting for the fact that the Navy’s regular fuel cost is just under $4 per gallon. Additionally, one of the companies involved in the sale employs a prominent member of Obama’s 2008 transition team, one T.J Glauthier.

The company in question, Solazyme of California, has also been a happy beneficiary $21.8 million of Obama’s “stimulus” spending.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Crime - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - Taxes - Tea Party - Time Magazine - Warner Todd Huston

Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?

December 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s that time of year again, time for newspapers and magazines to start floating their “top stories of the year” lists and Time Magazine has a whole “Top of Everything” list with which to thrill us. But it is Time’s Top U.S. News Stories list that deserves some closer scrutiny because on it Time has determined that the Occupy Wall Street tale is the number one story of the year. As if anyone ever doubted that this left-wing temper tantrum would pique Time’s interest most.

But, seriously, now. Is Gabrielle Giffords somehow a lesser story than the Occupiers? Is the long-drawn out GOP primary campaign a lesser story? How about the debt crisis? Is that somehow a less important story than Occupy Wall Street? Apparently Time thinks so.

Certainly these lists are always somewhat subjective. After all, what one considers important another may not. But some of these entries seem to point out Time’s ideology as opposed to a serious attempt to pick the top stories of 2011. And making the Occupy story number one is pure ideology.

Time puts this story above the bad economy, Iraq, the Penn State sex abuse case, and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. In fact, if it weren’t for the bad economy, the debt ceiling debate and the bank crisis this Occupy business would not have occurred at all.
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Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?”

Alan Caruba - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes

Spending More has Never Worked!

December 12, 2011 by

-By Alan Caruba

Ask any financial advisor what to do when you are drowning in debt and they will tell you to spend less and pay down your debt. This is just common sense. However, if you ask politicians what to do, they will advise that the nation spend more and borrow more.

Despite a huge national debt and deficit, the federal government just concluded its biggest spending year with its second biggest annual budget deficit. For fiscal 2011 which ended September 30, the government spent $3.6 trillion, an increase over the $3.52 trillion posted in 2009.

The budget “deficit” is the difference between the revenues that government took in and what it spent. The “debt” is the accumulation of yearly deficits. The U.S. has a debt of $15 trillion and this grows by billions daily due to the interest that must be paid on the amount of borrowing required to sustain its operations. Fully 40 cents of every dollar the government spends is now borrowed.

The Congressional Budget Office noted that the deficit is “greater than in any year since 1945” as World War Two wound down. As a Wall Street Journal editorial expressed it, “The Obama years have racked up the three largest deficits, both in absolute amounts and as a share of GDP, since Hitler still terrorized Europe.”
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Spending More has Never Worked!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - RightPundits.com - Taxes - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Obama-Supported Wireless Startup Suffers Massive Tech Failure

December 10, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The startup wireless service that the Obama administration is investing both financial and political capital in, a company called LightSquared, seems to have suffered a massive technical failure, one that has been warned about for some time. Despite the warnings, though the administration continues to push LightSquared causing many to worry about another Solyndra-like calamity.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that testing of the wireless service is showing that its signal disrupts 75% of all global-positioning system receivers (GPS). Apparently, there is no doubt about this result, either….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Los Angeles - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Even NY Times Doubtful About California Boondoggles

December 10, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know a government project is headed for disaster when even the New York Times becomes skeptical about it.

In a recent article, the “newspaper of record” interviewed several public officials, transportation experts and historians who raise “serious objections” about the viability of California’s High-Speed Rail project — a project created by a ballot initiative.

Each critic cites cost overruns, inflated ridership projections and questionable travel routes as reasons why this transportation project a ballot measure funded by taxpayers is going to cost billions more than expected — and literally create a road to nowhere. This revelation comes at a time when the state is already facing financial Armageddon.

“…several experts suggested that the train would never attract the promised ridership…” the article said. “Low ridership would undercut the economic and environmental benefits that are part of the argument for the project.”

Worse, those tasked with planning and running the new high-speed rail project are scheming instead of planning. One of the serious questions about this project is where the construction is set to begin. The first leg is being started in an area of low population density among people who have little interest in using the railway.
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Even NY Times Doubtful About California Boondoggles”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Cook County - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Jobs - Joe Walsh - Republicans - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

FULL VIDEO: Rep. Walsh Picks 8th District for 2nd Run

December 9, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Thursday night I attended the Chicago Tea Party meeting which featured a jazzed up first term Congressman Joe Walsh who came to announce in which District he’d take a crack at running to affect his reelection to Congress. Without stringing you along, Walsh chose the newly redistricted 8th for his run.

The Chicago Tea Party event was held at Chicago’s famous Cubby Bear restaurant right across the street from The Cub’s Wrigley field stadium.

With the Democrats in control of how Illinois’ electoral map was redrawn — due to the fact that the Illinois GOP has practically no power at all in the state — Walsh became the chief target that Democrats wanted to eliminate for 2012. Walsh’s home is currently in his 8th District, but redistricting casts his home into the 14th District, a district that is already represented by Randy Hultgren, also a solid Republican (and also a freshman congressman To boot).


A full House for Joe’s announcement at Chicago’s favorite Cubby Bear Pub

Initially Walsh announced plans to primary Hultgren and run in the newly jiggered 14th District. But as the weeks rolled on that prospect seemed an increasingly dismal idea. To primary another Republican would have meant a very, very bloody primary fight, one that would do neither Hultgren nor Walsh — nor Republicans for that matter — any good at all regardless of who won the primary.

This led Walsh to a hard decision and that is what brought him to the Cubby Bear that night.
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FULL VIDEO: Rep. Walsh Picks 8th District for 2nd Run”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Federalism - Founders - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Regulation - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama: Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work

December 8, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama, President of the United Deniers of America, is slamming the country again. This time he ways that capitalism, liberty, and American principles have never worked.

Speaking in Osawatomie, Kansas, where in 1910 an off-the-rails Teddy Roosevelt laid out a new socialist-inspired dream for America he entitled the “New Nationalism,” Obama had a few choice words for our American principles.

In his speech, Obama went for the gusto in class warfare rhetoric characterizing anyone that makes a few dollars as the eeevil rich that refuse to be “fair” to the poor. Obama told his audience that capitalism doesn’t work and never did. And guess what he thinks the solution is? Yep, more power to himself and government.

If no other video clip has done it for you, this one should show that Barack Obama’s ideals are not American ideals.
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Obama: Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Daniel Clark - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Energy - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Oil - Republicans - Ronald Reagan - Taxes

We’ve Been Had: Reagan’s Words Have Gone Unheeded

December 8, 2011 by

-By Daniel Clark

In Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address, he described America by saying, “We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around.” Thirty years later, that doesn’t exactly ring true.

During the 2008 primaries, Barack Obama told a group of supporters in Oregon that, “We can’t drive our SUVs, and eat as much as we want, and keep our homes at 72 degrees at all times, and then just expect that other countries are going to say, ‘oh, okay.’ That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.” Exercising our freedom as consumers is “not going to happen?” Spoken like the future leader of a government that has a nation.

This September, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack lectured representatives of the National Restaurant Association about the amount of salt and sugar in their food, as part of an intimidation campaign with which several large restaurant chains are already “cooperating.” Of course, salt and sugar cost money, so if it made good business sense for restaurants to reduce the amounts they use, they would have done so already. They haven’t because the food just won’t taste as good, as you’re well aware if you’ve ever accidentally bought a can of low-sodium soup, and then carpet-bombed it with salt in an attempt to make it palatable.
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We’ve Been Had: Reagan’s Words Have Gone Unheeded”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Help Stop The High Cost of Federal Regulations

December 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Reposting this because the House is voting on this bill today…)

One of the reasons that our economic recovery has been so slow is that the Obama administration has opened a continuous avalanche of regulations affecting jobs, hampering businesses, and costing all of us billions in lost revenue, taxation, and waste. But there is a bill in the House called the REINS Act that could help tamp down this avalanche, save us all money, help bring back the creation of jobs that aren’t being created now.

The full name of the act is the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act and that is a pretty straight forward name for the legislation as its premise is that regulatory agencies are so out of control and the costs they impose on the people have become so onerous that Congress has to step in and place limits on this untrammeled power. (H.R. 10 and the Senate’s similar bill S. 299)
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Help Stop The High Cost of Federal Regulations”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Peter Roskam - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

REINing Regs In

December 7, 2011 by

-By GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy & Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam

“Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington.” That was the plea to President Obama from Rock Katschnig, an Atkinson, Ill.-based soybean farmer and small-businessman at an August town-hall meeting.

While Mr. Katschnig was specifically referencing his opposition to the Administration’s imposed Farm Dust rule, a rule that if implemented would affect America’s 1.8 million farmers, his sentiments have become an all too common refrain from American businesses of all sizes across countless sectors.

Appropriate and responsible regulations are important, helping to keep us safe and our environment clean. Yet Washington has become a red-tape factory stunting job creation with a dizzying amount of federally imposed regulations written by unaccountable bureaucrats with little or no regard for the jobs each will cost.

The sheer amount and breadth of the administration’s proposed regulations make it impossible to address each and every one. Yet we can take action to stop the most excessive and economically-devastating regulations. Right now, the Obama Administration has 4,257 new regulations in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually – 15 percent more than last year. At a time when job creators are fighting to survive in an already tough economy, thousands of additional regulations will only result in significantly fewer jobs – hitting small businesses particularly hard.
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REINing Regs In”